Discovery Center

Center for Limnological Research and Rehabilitation

The Center
for Limnological Research and Rehabilitation (CLRR as in CLEAR water, lakes,
and streams) is a component of the Sustainability Sciences Institute that
focuses on eutrophication issues and management solutions for freshwater
systems. The Center provides limnological research services to the surrounding
community that include diagnosing eutrophication-related problems in lakes and
reservoirs, conducting comprehensive hydrologic and limnological monitoring
programs, identifying and quantifying important phosphorus sources that drive
cyanobacterial blooms, and developing and implementing management plans to
sustainably rehabilitate degraded aquatic systems.

The laboratory
facilities, located in 260 Jarvis Hall, provide the Center with an array of
analytical capabilities for examination of nutrients (primarily phosphorus
species) and algae in water and sediment. The Center has a variety of field
monitoring equipment for quantifying tributary flow and phosphorus loads
discharging into lakes, boats and sampling equipment for monitoring lake
chemistry and biology, and coring capabilities for examination of aquatic
sediment. In particular, we have unique expertise for determining important
mobile phosphorus fractions in aquatic sediments and nutrient exchanges between
sediments and the overlying water. Aquatic sediment is often an important
source of phosphorus to lakes and control of sediment phosphorus is essential
in lake rehabilitation